


Immortal Darkness

by Arcadias_Fire



Series: Iterations of the Infinite Reflection [7]
Category: British Actor RPF, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Marvel Cinematic Universe RPF, Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Canon-Typical Violence, Horror, M/M, Magic, Mythology - Freeform, Religious Imagery & Symbolism, Vampires
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-01
Updated: 2021-01-01
Packaged: 2021-03-11 03:41:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,382
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28488477
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arcadias_Fire/pseuds/Arcadias_Fire
Summary: The hour after the pubs close was always the best time to hunt. Drunken young men and women, making their way back to their student lodgings in the wee hours made for easy targets. They lost their fear of the night and those who dwelt in the shadows. Making themselves far more vulnerable than they would think possible. Cambridge was safe, wasn’t it? A university town for centuries, its student’s lives were unassailable.The young all believed they were immortal. Until they found out they weren’t.
Relationships: Tom Hiddleston/Loki
Series: Iterations of the Infinite Reflection [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1142612
Comments: 6
Kudos: 13





	Immortal Darkness

The hour after the pubs close was always the best time to hunt. Drunken young men and women, making their way back to their student lodgings in the wee hours made for easy targets. They lost their fear of the night and those who dwelt in the shadows. Making themselves far more vulnerable than they would think possible. Cambridge was safe, wasn’t it? A university town for centuries, its student’s lives were unassailable.

The young all believed they were immortal. Until they found out they weren’t.

The young man walking down the street possessed this unaware confidence. Even though he huddled in his brown leather jacket, hiding from the chill. He strode through the night as though the pools of light cast by the lamps would protect him. 

He didn’t notice the two men watching him from the shadows. 

One stepped out in front of the young man, blocking his path with wide shoulders and an evil leer. “Hey there.” 

The young man looked up and blinked. “Can I help you?” 

“Oh, I think you can.” The broad-shouldered tough glanced back into the darkness. “Hey Will, we’ve got ourselves a real gentleman here.” 

Another figure walked into the pool of light. Will was shorter than his friend, and a bit pudgy, but glassy, harsh eyes made up for whatever his physique might lack. He stood just behind their quarry, making it obvious he couldn’t run. “I think you’re right, Bob, sounds like a real toff.” 

The young man - who couldn’t be older than twenty at the outside - straightened his spine and offered the men a small smile. He was far taller than either of them, but skinny enough to look starved under his leather jacket and jeans. A mop of blond curls and guileless blue eyes made him look fragile. Innocent. “I don’t want any trouble.” He held his hands out, empty and pacifying. 

Bob snorted. “Don’t want trouble, you say? How do you think we can avoid trouble?” 

“I…” The young man looked between the two others. “I’m afraid I don’t have any money.” 

“No?” Will asked, cracking his knuckles. “That sounds like a wee bit of a lie, if you don’t mind my saying so.” 

The young man gave them both another nervous-looking smile. “I spent my last pound at the pub. Sorry.” 

“Now, I just don’t believe that. Do you, Will?” Bob said, taking a step closer to the young man. 

“No I don’t. Accent like that, this boy’s got some dosh laying around.” 

“Really, gentlemen, I have nothing.” The young man took a step away from them, towards the edge of the pool of light. “I only brought a few quid to the pub so I wouldn’t overspend.” 

Will looked over at Bob, and both men shook their heads. “That’s a real shame, that is,” Will said in a saccharine tone. “Maybe we should just go back to your digs and have a look ‘round then?” 

“I…” The young man took another step away. Will and Bob stepped with him, and the message was clear. There was no escape, not this way. “I’m afraid I can’t do that.” 

“No?” 

The young man straightened a bit more. “No. I really don’t have any money.” 

Will grinned. “Well then, we’ll have to take something else then.” 

Bob took the young man’s arm with a grip like iron. “You’re pretty enough to be going on with, even if you’re a skinny lad.” 

A look of panic lit the young man’s eyes and he turned to run. He crashed into Will, who had appeared in front of him as if from nowhere. Bob grabbed his arm from behind and wrenched it painfully against his back. The young man let out a harsh cry. 

“Let me go!” He tried to pull free, but the hands that held him were inhumanly strong. 

Will chuckled. “You ain’t getting away so easy now.” He smiled again and sharp, elongated fangs distended down from his upper jaw. “Young thing like you will taste pretty damned sweet.” 

“Oh.” The young man blinked at them and his posture eased a fraction. “You’re vampires.” 

“Bright lad,” Bob replied, his own fangs dropping into view. “Pity you ain’t going to be able to finish school now.” 

“Wait a moment,” Will interrupted. “You don’t sound very surprised to find out that we’re bloody vampires.” 

The young man’s eyes glittered in the street light. “There are more things in heaven and earth.” 

“Pretty quotes won’t save you,” Will growled and lunged forward. 

What happened next happened very quickly. Will struck with his body and his fangs in a single, fluid motion. A predator, alive in the moment of perfect that was the kill, craving the moment he would penetrate the flesh and drain out of the life of this young man, as he had to so many before. Only, those fangs never reached their target. 

A section of the darkness surrounding the street lamp pulled away from the rest, like a wave of liquid black swelling up from its ocean. It swept into the light, coiled around the striking vampire. Will cried out and struggled, but the inky bindings constricted like a snake, shattering his bones with an audible snap. It dragged him into the depths of the night. An agonized scream echoed through the gloom before it was cut off by a sickening crack. 

Bob scrambled away from the young man, into the center of the pool of light. “What the fuck? Will? Where’d the fuck you go?” 

The young man smiled and straightened his cuffs. “I told you I didn’t want any trouble.” 

Bob’s gaze shot back to the young man, his “victim,” and stared at him, eyes wide. “What?” 

The smile turned into a manic grin. “There are things lurking in the shadows far more dangerous than you, my friend.” The young man stepped to the edge of the light, and a black form curled around him. As though the night itself embraced him. “A vampire is nothing next to a God.” 

Bob shuddered, his fangs disappearing. “What… ain’t no such thing as God.” 

A face melted into form out of the darkness wrapped around the young man. Pale, crazed, and nearly identical to the man’s. “As you say, blood-drinker. But there are God _s_ , and priests as well. Your kind fears holy light, but you’ve forgotten about the sacred darkness.” A body peeled from the darkness, into its own, black form. It was in the shape of a human, and far from being distorted or misshapen as one might expect, it was eerily perfect. Black and white, with glittering green eyes. As though the young man’s shadow had pulled itself into being. 

Bob’s eyes went wide with panic. “What the fuck are you?” 

“Idiot blood-sucker, have you no ears to listen with? I am Loki. A God as ancient and powerful as any story, legend, or song sung in the cold air of the night. You have threatened my priest with bodily harm. That shall not stand.” The shadow loomed over the vampire. “Have you any last words?” 

Bob dropped to his knees. “Please don’t kill me.” 

The God laughed. “You’ve been dead for centuries and only your delusions sustain you. Allow me to cure you of this madness. You belong on your knees, but you were not there soon enough.” 

The God dispersed into shadow again and surrounded the huddled, quivering form of the vampire, who began to scream. The screams grew louder, more agonized. Then there was silence. The shadow slipped away from the fallen body to coalesce into a human-like shape again. 

“Are you well? Did they hurt you?” Loki asked. Black and green swirled off his body and around the priest, cradling his head like he was the most precious thing in the universe. 

The priest smiled and leaned into the ethereal touch. “No, they didn’t. Thanks to you.” 

“Good.” A swirl of darkness solidified into a pale hand which slipped up into the man’s curls and drew him into a kiss. “Let’s go home.” 

And if anyone were to look at the streets of Cambridge in those wee hours after pubs closed, they would see a tall, thin young man holding hands with his own shadow, walking home through the darkness and the light. 


End file.
